Vegan MoFo Day 3: BALLS! hehe

Ha! This post is actually about pasta but I got your attention didn't I? Dirty birdy.  Anyway, it does also involve balls so don't be too disappointed.

I am a bit unprepared for MoFo if I'm honest and the last couple of days I haven't really cooked anything exciting.  So I'm doing a bit of a grocery shop later so that I can change that.  But for today, here are a couple of pasta dishes that I made recently that were on my phone.  The second one was actually yesterday's dinner, so I don't feel too bad about this post. 

This one is some spaghetti with tempeh BALLS (recipe in this post).  The sauce on the pasta was pretty simple, just some Sacla Aubergine Pesto and some nooch.  It was good and not too time consuming to knock up. And easy as balls! ha, see what I did there!

Last night's tea.  Mondays and Tuesdays I have salsa classes in the evening so I always have to have something quick, unless I've had the foresight to make something with leftovers* the night before.  But as my smaller clothes I bought last year are feeling tight again, I wanted something that was still healthy if possible.  So this was just a quick dish of some wholewheat penne, broccoli, green beans, sweetcorn, tomatoes from my dad's friend's garden and some smoked tofu.  The sauce was a bit of pasta water and some tesco dairy free cheddar style spread and a crap-tonne of nooch.  It was easy and good, but when I was eating it, I was wishing I'd put some sriracha in there too!

*this almost never happens.

 

Tonight's tea will also have to be something quick as I have a class at the gym earlier that I would like, maybe I'll come up with something super exciting, probably not.

 

See you tomorrow, if I don't die in Body Attack - never done it before and it looks painful!

 

Laterz

xXx

 

Vegan MoFo: Moroccan Inspired goodies

I made more effort tonight!! :-)

I took some tempeh (that I boiled for 10 minutes first) and spread it with a mixture of lemon juice, rasul-hanout spice mix, olive oil, paprika, a teeny pinch of allspice, grated ginger and grated garlic. Then I baked it for 20 minutes @ 200C. It was tasty!! I served it with some bulgar wheat just soaked for 30 minutes in veggie stock and an awesome salad.

My salad consited of canellinni beans, rehydrated sun dried tomatoess, rocket, alfalfa sprouts, cucumber and fresh mint & coriander. The dressing was more lemon juice, tahini, extra virgin olive oil, rasul hanout (a teeny bit), paprika, salt & pepper. Delish!

Laterz
xXx

Hello?*

Hello - I've been neglecting this poor blog. I'm going to try and get back into a routine of posting again though, so I don't keep leaving it so long.

Well since the last post, my birthday came and went rather unspectacularly and we've had some gorgeous weather. That's about it. hahaha.

I did have a month's worth of food pix but rather than bombard you with crap, I just picked out the stuff I liked.

Starting with this pasta bake. I made the vegan yum yum sauce (but without the basil cuz I didn't have any, so I used dried thyme and rosemary instead) and mixed it with wholewheat penne. Then topped it with cheezly mozz, breadcrumbs and nooch and then baked it for 20 mins until the cheezly melted. Good stuff!


This was a salad I made last week, with red, yellow and orange cherry tomatoes, cucumber, sun dried tomatoes, cucumber, carrots and a simple oil & vinegar dressing. The tempeh, I boiled for 10 mins then marinated in lime juice, soy sauce and hot sauce then baked it in the marinade, under foil for 20 mins. Then flipped it, took off the foil and baked another 10 mins. It was really tangy and yummy.

Mini muffins.... I am dieting so I thought if I made them small, theyd be less calories. Which they are but then I eat 2!! hahaha. Ah well, the thought is there.

This was a riff on something that Giada De Laurentiis made on everyday Italian. I cooked a cup of orzo pasta then sauteed some spring onions and a couple of chopped up plum tomatoes, then added a cup of peas and about half a cup of alpro soya cream (the fresh one). I also put in some nooch and some thyme if I remember rightly and added some pasta water to make a bit more sauce. When you first mix in the sauce it's quite erm, well saucy! But as it sits the pasta soaks up all the sauce and so it makes really yummy cold leftovers.

This was dinner for me and my friends a coupleof weeks ago and also, the first thing I made from Viva Vegan. That book is awesome and this was the Guatita (creamy peanut / potato stew). SO FREAKING DELICIOUS!! I made a salsa to go with it with sweetcorn, black beans, avocado, cucumber and cherry tomatoes and served it all with some brown basmati rice.

It makes a lot - about 6 servings worth. My friends and I ate about 4 servings between us by the time we finished off what was in the serving bowl and then I had loads of leftovers :-)

For pudding, I made us cupcakes. It was my friend's birthday so that's why one had a candle in.

Speaking of birthdays, mine was at the beginning of the month. I decided the theme for my cake this year would be a hot mess! hahaha - I think I pulled it off with the aid of a shit tonne of sprinkles and jelly tots:

Even the inside was a mess! I coloured portions of the cake with food colouring:


And swirled it....


The only colours that came through well though were the blue and the green. Next time I know I'll have to put in way more. You could see the orange a bit, but it wasn't much darker than regular cake colour! And you can see a bit of the pink but the purple kind of disappeared. Ah well, it was still a hot mess and it could have sent even the biggest sugar love into a sugar coma if they'd eaten enough!


Onto a random dinner - mushroom parm! Something else I saw Giada make (I think). I made a quick tomato sauce with some cherry tomatoes that weregoing a bit soft in the fridge. I grilled some mushrooms and then topped them with the sauce and a topping made of breadcrumbs, nooch and cheezly mozz mixed together. Under the grill they went for 5 mins u ntil the cheese melted and I served them with a rocket salad dressed with a tahini and lemon dressing. DELISH.

That's about it for now. Have a great week in the sunshine everyone.

Laterz

xXx

* dammit I'm gonna be singing Lionel Richie all day and now hopefully - so will you! BAHAHAHAHAAHA!

Oops! I did it again.....

... I left it too long between posts! Bad Sal!

Well I'm making up for it with lots of pics. Starting with pictures from a recent PPK meet up. I was in Brighton to see Ash playing at Concorde 2 that night (they were freaking awesome by the way) and all the food in the day made this one brilliant weekend.

It was supposed to be in the park but the weather was decidedly dodgy, so JoJo graciously hosted for us. But, as if you didn't already know, I'm a bad blogger and I forgot my camera, so I took a pic of my (first!) plate with my phone. I've totally forgotten who made what so here's a vague outline. Cheesey feet crackers! hehe they were awesome, carrot tart which was delicious, salad with pasta / seitan sausages and rocket, sausage rolls, potato wedges with barbecue sauce, rice salad, spanakopita (sp?) and home made bread. All delicious. The potato wedges, barbecue sauce and rice were my contributions.


Then the important stuff - the dessert plate - Clockwise: Kip's fortune cookie (with added snarky defensive omnivore / vegan sayings inside - brilliant!!), Helen's rocky road cookies, Jojo's rocky road brownies, Holley's vegan jaffa cakes (AWESOME!) and my apple / custard mini pies.

Those rocky road cookies were so good - you're gonna see them again in a couple of pics' time!

A close up of my rice salad that I took just after I made it. Sauteed peppers, onions, mushrooms, redwoods bacon style rashers, sweetcorn and peas with brown basmati rice.

And my pies. Totally cheated on these - I cooked up some granny smith apples with sugar and spices and then rolled out shop bought shortcrust pastry and cut them out and put them in muffin tins. A spoonful of alpro soya custard and apple mixture with a cute heart of pastry on top and a sprinkle of sugar and they were ready for the oven.

I had som pastry left and I love pastry so hate to waste it, so I made a turnover with the leftover apples and custar. It came out weird looking but yummy.

The next morning, my friend and I were planning to go to Wai Kika Moo Kau for a veg brekkie but as my bro and his girlfriend came with us, we went across the road to Bubble Kitschen. They serve a vegan breakfast alongside their vegetarian and omni versions. It was MASSIVE and the coffee was pretty bad but the breakfast was pretty damn good!


Onto some randomness. Dinner the other night. I saw Levi Roots make pumpkin rice the other night and thought it looked pretty good. And I had a butternut squish (hehe) in the fridge already so I made my own version. I also had some orange pepper and sweetcorn leftover in the fridge so I chucked them in too. It was good but I think I need to play around with the spices before I post the recipe. I just had it with some steamed tenderstem broccoli.

I made some seitan sausages on Sunday and for a quick dinner I blitzed up some tomatoes and mixed them with wholewheat penne, sugar snaps, asparagus (HURRAH for UK asparagus season being in swing!!), cannellini beans and some herbs and spices. Oh and one of my sausages - pretty good for a quick dinner.

I made the sausages because I fancied sausage and mash. So that's what I had sunday, with onion gravy. YUM.

Remember those rocky road cookies I mentioned before - well I dreamed about them for a week after having them in Brighton. So I dug out Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar and made a batch. Me and my friends ate some when they were round for dinner and I made them take a load home so I didn't eat the whole batch myself. I froze some because I was in danger of eating them all. They are SO good! My friend's hubby who I sent some home with my friend for, said they're my best baked good yet, so thanks Isa & Terry!! I made sure to only cook them the minimum time so they were fudgy and soft. If you have this book you gotta make them!!

Here's the dough, I had to seriously restrain myself from just eating all the dough straight out the bowl.

When I was in Brighton I went into Infinity to buy some Tempeh and all they had was the one with sea vegetables in. Boo, but I bought one anyway! And thought I'd make the chesapeake tempeh cakes from Vegan Brunch. The only complaint I had with these is not to do with Isa's recipe - it's my own fault - I added some old bay seasoning because I found it in the American shop near where I live. And so they pretty much just tasted of celery - and I don't like celery! Dummy. So I'm going to try making them again without the old bay and I think they are going to be awesome.

I made a potato waffle to go with them. I haven't got these quite right yet but I'm working on it and I will post the recipe as soon as I have it right!

This was a quinoa pudding that I got the recipe for from the GI Vegetarian cookbook. It was spectacularly underwhelming. But I like the idea of it - so I'm going to play with it and report back next time!

Simple dinner of rice salad and some tempeh that I baked with a bit of all purpose seasoning sprinkled on it and had in a big floury roll with barbecue sauce. yummy.

This was a recipe I got off sparkpeople for tempeh carrot salad. It had ginger and orzo pasta in in. I changed it a bit by adding some lime juice and adding shredded cabbage and sugar snaps. It was really really good but I think it needed more tempeh. I'd make it again definitely.

And finally, a quick dinner of spaghetti bolognaise - made with linda mccartney mince and sprinkled with nooch. Yum.

I will try not to leave it so long next time.

Laterz
xXx

These aren't the droids you're looking for!

EDIT: I've just realised that on the 5th of March this blog was 2 years old! Thank you thank you everyone who reads. I love yous.

I finally have an excuse to use that post title - I got a new phone – it’s an android phone (similar to iPhones but cooler!! Hahah). I’m very excited about it and not just cuz it’s pink....

It's actually that light pink colour, the hot pink surround is a skin I bought for it to protect it when I drop it, which will happen - I'm clumsy.



I thought I’d start off with a pic that I took on the phone – this was brunch on Sunday, not bad for a camera phone. I went down to visit my brother and his girlfriend in their new flat in Hove. Sunday morning we caught the bus into Brighton, which is awesome because it’s so vegan friendly. We went to Wai Kika Moo Kau – I’ve wanted to go there for ages because I love the name of it! It’s a vegetarian cafe with vegan options as well. I had the full vegan English breakfast: sausages, marinated tofu, oven baked butter beans (instead of tinned baked beans which are the devil’s work), tomatoes with pesto sauce and a yummy hash brown. It was awesome and I had a soya latte with it. My bro and his girlfriend had the veggie breakfast, he wasn’t getting bacon or ‘proper’ sausages so he needed eggs - I think tofu would have finished him off!


They haven’t lived in their flat very long so I made them a little housewarming present – cookies. These had white chocolate, cranberries and walnuts in and they were super yum. I played with Dreena Burton’s recipe again and I think I changed it up enough so I’ll put the recipe at the end of the post. Dreena’s original chocolate chip recipe is online here though (and it’s AWESOME and really adaptable).

Mum and Dad came over for dinner last week and I made us some nice chunky soup for dinner. It was lovely and I made a massive pot so I could live off leftovers for lunches for a few days. It had butternut squash, turnip, onions, parsnips, red lentils, celeriac and a teeny pinch of chilli flakes.

Random dinner last week. I bought this tomato in waitrose that you're meant to eat while it's still green. But as you can see I left it in the fridge a wee bit too long. It was pretty though I thought. I roasted half of it (the other half went into the aforementioned soup!). I had it with some firm polenta with sweetcorn in and some roasted brussels and celeriac.

These were a birthday present for my friend last weekend. Coconut cupcakes with raspberries. I poked a hole in them and put some mushed raspberry & cointreau in, then piped coconut buttercream on before decorating with a fresh razza. They were yummy but fell apart a bit, probably because of the extra liquid from the raspberries. I'm working on this recipe, they'll be awesome one day!

This was last friday's dinner. Rachael Ray made these german style potato wedges which looked great, aside from being cooked in bacon fat. Blech. So for mine, I doused the potatoes in cider vinegar and sprinkled on some sugar and bacon salt! I found bacon salt in the american sweet shop not far from where I live. The plain one has milk in but the one with pepper is vegan. So it took care of the bacon flavour, salt and pepper! Triple threat!! They were pretty good, maybe I should have sprinkled some bacos in after they'd done cooking, or then maybe that would be gross??? The burger on the side is a Frys Chicken Style burger, my new favourite thing - and that comes from a hater of most fake meats!

Another random dinner. Remember the tempeh stuffing balls from last time? I had some leftover tempeh and decided to try my hand at a white chilli. It was good but not quite right, so I need to work on it before I post the recipe.

And as promised, the cookie recipe:

Cranberry, Walnut & White Chocolate Cookies

Dry Ingredients:
150g (1 cup) plain flour (I often sub this for white spelt flour and it works perfectly)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
4 tbsp (1/4 cup) granulated sugar
1/4 tsp ground allspice (optional, but yummy)
1/4 tsp sea salt (if using table salt, half that)
4 tbsp (1/4 cup) dried cranberries
4 tbsp chopped walnuts
50g vegan white chocolate buttons or chips (about 1/3 cup if I had to guess - I used 2 bags of the dairy free white choc buttons they now sell in the free-from sections in tesco & sainsburys!!)
Wet Ingredients:
4 tbsp (1/4 cup) malt extract
20 ml (ie make the malt extract up to 1/3 cup) golden syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 tbsp (1/4 cup) rapeseed (canola) oil
1/4 tsp blackstrap molasses

Method:
Preheat the oven to 190C/about 360F.

Whisk together the dry ingredients (I always sieve the baking powder and soda through a little tea strainer as you can get lumps of soda otherwise in your cookie). Add the cranberries and walnuts. Smash up the buttons a bit, but don't make them too small - some big pieces are good! Add to the dry ingredients and give it all a good mix.

Whisk together the wet ingredients (be patient, it'll happen!) and then pour into the dry. Mix with a fork till you can't anymore then get your hand in and mix it till it comes together in a ball of dough.

Pull off pieces about a rounded tbsp (walnut sort of size) and roll into a ball. Space them apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment. Then wet a fork and press it lightly one way then another, for cross-hatches! Bake for 5-6 minutes for a chewy cookie, 7-8 for crispier. (dreena's recipe says 10 or 11 but that's for bigger cookies). Leave them 5 minutes on the sheet to firm up then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

That's all folks.

Laterz
xXx

Oh balls!

Hellooo everyone. Did you have pancakes last Tuesday??? I did, more on that in a minute though.

I'm starting off with last night's dinner. In my mind for weeks I've been dreaming of balls. Ahem, what I mean to say is meatless balls!! That doesn't sound any better does it? Well these are a mixture of tempeh and sage & onion stuffing mix. Sounds gross, tastes like a little ball of heaven! tee hee. Recipe is at the end of the post but I think this recipe has potential to be great just as a way of awesoming up stuffing mix or even flattened into patties and baked for a burger.

I served them with mushroom sauce (thought tomato would be too heavy) and quinoa pasta. Yum.


Dessert was simple. I cut up a nectarine and put it into a foil package with some rice syrup and baked it at 180C for 15 minutes. I served it with a blob of plain soy yoghurt and a wee sprinkle of ground allspice and then poured the fruity syrupy juices from the package over it.

These were some oat crackers I made last week. They're pretty good but I haven't got them exactly right yet. Recipe will follow once they're better.

I made some cookies last week. I played with Dreena Burton's homestyle choc chip cookie recipe by taking out the choc chips, swapping the plain flour for white spelt, swapping 1/4 cup of the flour for cocoa and using rice syrup instead of maple syrup (WAY cheaper!). I also made them smaller, a round tbsp or so each so I got 23 out of the mixture instead of 12! I baked them 8 minutes and they were nice and crispy.

So I mentioned pancake day last week. I prefer the fluffy american style (drop scone) pancakes for breakfast but on pancake day, it's only right to have flat ones. I didn't attempt to flip them, I suck at that! Here is one, ready for a rollin.....

And rolled up with the traditional filling of some lemon juice (bottled - tee hee) and sprinkled with sugar. Yum.

This was dinner one night last week. Oh that pile of horrible looking green mush was broccoli smashed potatoes. An idea I stole off Rachael Ray! But she put in a crap tonne of cheese and cream. I just added a bit of soymilk and salt & pepper and a sprinkle of nooch - they were really really good. Reminded me of when I was little and my mum used to mix mashed swede in with the potatoes so I would eat them! :-)

I feel bad for this lentil soup because he was oh so tasty but I don't think is a way to make a soup made with brown lentils a pretty one! Ugly? Yes. Tasty? Oh yes!

This was dinner on Friday night. I made a basic risotto with some onions and sun-dried tomatoes in and then at the end stirred in a bunch of steamed green veg. It was soooo tasty. I added peas, green beans and broccoli.

Here's that recipe I promised:

Sage & Onion Tempeh Balls
Ingredients:
100g (1/2 a pack) tempeh
1/3 cup (40g) sage & onion stuffing mix (paxo and sainsbury's own are both vegan)
1/2 cup (125ml) boiling water
1/2 a medium onion (about 1/2 cup)
1 tbsp olive oil
Braggs or soy sauce
1/2 tsp dried thyme
Salt & Pepper to taste

Fry Light / cooking oil spray

Method:
Preheat the oven to 200C/400F.

Then start with the tempeh. Cut it up into rough chunks and throw it in a pan (I used a frying pan) and fill it with enough water to just cover the tempeh. Bring to the boil then leave it for 1o minutes.

Meanwhile, mix the stuffing mix with the boiling water and cover with a plate. Set aside for at least 5 minutes.

Once the tempeh is done, remove from the pan and dry out the pan. Add the oil and saute the onions for 5 minutes until just starting to get some colour. Crumble the tempeh up nice and fine and add it to the onions, cook for a good 5 mins or so to get some colour on the tempeh. Then add the thyme and spritz with braggs (about 10-15 sprays) or add a tsp or 2 of soy sauce or tamari. Mix well and then remove from heat and tip into a mixing bowl to cool. Add the stuffing mixture and mash it all together with a fork.

Once cool enough to handle, roll about a heaped tbsp at a time into balls (you should get about 18). Then spray a baking sheet with fry light and put the balls on ready to cook. Spritz the top of them with fry light (optional) and then bake for 15-20 minutes (until lightly browned). Then serve with whatever you like!!

If you make larger balls (hee hee) or patties, you'll probably want to bake them 20-25 mins!

That's all for now aside from saying that I'm on Twitter now (sal_on_toast) - feel free to add me if you're on there, I only have 3 followers! hahaha.

Laterz
xXx

Tell me, Von Dahl-ing, what was it won you over?

"Don't give me that, matey. I know your game. Tell me, "Von Darling", what was it won you over? Was it the pumpernickel or the thought of hanging around with a lot of men in leather shorts?"

"I'll have you court martialed for this, Blackadder."

"What, for obeying the General's orders? That might be how you do things in Munich — or should I say München - but not here, Werner. You're a filthy Hun spy, aren't you? Baldrick - the cocker spaniel, please!!" **

Ahem, sorry. But sometimes I forget how awesome Blackadder was, until I go searching for a random quote with the word ‘darling’ in it so that I can make it into a bad pun for my post title. Le sigh. And that is one of my favourite ever episodes.

Get to the point Sal, I hear you cry! Well, I had Tarka Dahl for dinner yesterday and today and it was bloody spankingly loverly! I always order it in indian restaurants as a side dish but have never made it myself, but it was so easy!

I looked forward to it all day and it didn’t disappoint. I used THIS recipe, but used olive oil instead of butter and halved the recipe. It made a tonne, enough for 3 portions really rather than 2. I had it with brown basmati rice that I cooked in veggie stock then stirred some rocket leaves and a load of herbs (parsley and mint) through. YUM YUM YUM YUM YUM YUM YUM! So effing good.


I made some savoury muffins t'other day. They were cornmeal, spelt flour, courgette, sweetcorn and some spices. Pretty good but nothing to write home about. Once I make them awesome I'll post the recipe.

I thought this was pretty but it looks a bit of a mess in this pic. It was a one-pot wonder though! Tempeh, veggies, cooked spelt and spicy peanut sauce. YUM.

Sunday night's dinner, pizza! This wasn't my best effort I must admit. I bough some cheezly super melting edam style. YUK! I will stick to the mozarella from now on. This pizza was average at best, I didn't eat much of it.

Saturday night I had a couple of friends round for dinner and a couple of apple martinis! I made us a brown rice salad with a tonne of veggies and some homemade tofu thrown in. I roasted up a chilli too and minced that up and threw it in. The batch was pretty mild but this was one spicy mama!! It was yummy. I made some roasted veg and some Eat Drink & Be Vegan Cumin Lime Tofu to go with but forgot to take a pic, doh!

I also made us a choccy cake. A healthy one though, of sorts! hee hee. I used wholegrain spelt flour, replaced most of the oil with apple sauce and half the sugar with splenda. But then I put some chocolate ganache on top. I also put some desiccated coconut in the batter and some flaked coconut on top. Pretty yum. My friend ate most of it over the course of the night / breakfast and then took the leftovers home so I didn't have to worry about eating it all myself and ruining my diet! Score.

For snacks, I made us some dips. To go with I toasted up some pittas....

This was seriously the best hummus I've ever made, so good! I sprinkled some paprika and pine nuts on top to make it pretty.

I also made baba ganoush. I've never made it before so I was winging it, it was pretty good! One aubergine, that I roasted until it was soft. I roasted some garlic along with it and threw that in, with some tahini, lemon juice, a pinch of cumin and salt & pepper. Yum.

This was one tasty bad boy of a dinner last week - tempeh hash! I saw that episode of barefoot contessa where she makes chicken hash again! Last time I saw that I made veggie hash. This time I added in tempeh, pretty sure I stole that idea from Jessy! Served witha side of steamed broccoli.

This was such a random mish mash of stuff I threw together as I hadn't been shopping! haha, it was good though. A grilled portabello, steamed cabbage, mustardy firm polenta, black beans with salt, pepper & hot sauce and steamed broccoli. I dressed the broccoli with a tsp each of sesame oil and soy sauce and added some sesame seeds on top - it was sooooo good. The broccoli and polenta were battling each other fiercely for the title of star of this plate - it was too close to call.

Lastly about my PIF post, it was a bit of a fail, only 2 people responded!! So no randomator needed! So - River & Vivacious Vegan - email me your details (click top right) and some homemade goodies will be winging their way to you at some point in the near future (it may take a while as my supplies are low and I need to do a bit of ordering!!)

Have a great weekend peeps.

Laterz
xXx

**I couldn't find a clip of the episode that line is from but this is another of my favourite scenes. Brilliant! I must buy the DVDs!!